Brewing Chaos

[15 years ago]

[Royal Castle, Ethos]

[3rd Person's POV]

Inside a huge room of the castle, that can easily be bigger than ninety percent of the commoner's homes, sat Edward Von Ethos, sipping on his favorite drink, tea. Reading a letter that arrived at his palace a few minutes ago.

A smile forms on his face as he reads the reply given by the contacted leader of Silent Rouges. Soon he finishes the letter and presses his bell-like artifact kept on his table, the artifact used to contact his personal servants and knights inside the castle. He sips his cup and waits for the contacted person to come.

— -

[Edward's POV]

'They will be sending their man disguised as a merchant and a bodyguard? Hmm, not a bad plan

'They will be sending the said agent for me to keep in contact with them, if they are truly exceptional, ill have to be their regular customer' I pondered my options while I waited for my Knight Ivan to arrive. I'll have him escort the 'merchant' coming for 'business'.

I'll have to meet him and judge his strength to see if he is useful to me, I don't think that the Rouge group knows of Igor's prowess, that muscle-head may be braindead in common matters, but is genius in battles and one-on-one fights. Some rag-tag ruffian won't do.

Well, now personnel is handled, I'll have to create a perfect situation for my foolish half-brother to act, then plan a strike.

*knock-knock*

Came the sound from the door, as I woke up from my thoughts, "It's your Knight, Ivan Milord" came a voice from the outside.

" Come in" I commanded the said person, one of my most loyal and useful subordinates.

"I am at your command, milord," He said in a military stiff tone, saluting me.

"I need you to hitch me a business meeting with this person, the day after tomorrow will suffice," I said as I write down the information about the 'merchant' I got from the letter.

"It shall be done milord, anything else?"

"Escort them through the process, make sure that no one snoops around them... you can go now," I said as I handed him the parchment that contains information about the subject.

It will be enough to not raise suspicion on me, I can't let a spec of dirt on myself. Their leader has a good head on his shoulders to suggest me this method, which gives me the idea that these guys the real deal, not some run-of-the-mill assassins or bandits.

— -

I was sitting and reading a book when I noticed a bird land on my windowsill. I recognized the bird without much effort, these are collected information sent around by my spies inside the castle. Really useful, I might say.

Getting out of my thoughts, it picked the bird and took the letter out of it. As I read it, my smile got wider and wider, and eventually...

"HAHAHAHA THAT FOOL!!!! hahah~"

I laughed so hard that I started gasping for air, I haven't had this much laugh in ages, I can't even remember the last when I felt such happiness.

The letter read-

'The third prince is planning to go on an adventure for dragon eggs to win glory'

That fool gave me a position, if it was not him, I'd think it as a trap, probably to sniff out all the attackers against him, but it's that dumb muscle-head, he'd die before he steps inside politics and scheming. A person whose whole brain is coded with just 'yes', 'no', and 'smash'.

All I need to wait is for the fucking assassin to come to me, "Huff~ Huff~" I slowly started breathing to calm my excited nerves. 'You can't get overly excited here!' I calm myself down. I can't lose myself here, being complacent will only lead to my downfall.

I will celebrate once the hurdle before me will fall, and I will get a step closer to being a King. "AHHH~ My empire" I grinned ear to ear while thinking about me sitting on the throne, looking down on everyone in the Kingdom.

— -

Two days have passed, and while it was mostly uneventful for me, I gave a lot of orders and set my pieces up to totally cover up and take over everything Igor has.

I persuaded the elder's council to give Nikolai a job inside the merchant's department, I did this to entrap him with too many responsibilities. Well, the deal was for him to do some underhanded work for me, in exchange for my support inside the council.

I have greater connections around the world naturally because I am a lot older than him. I have to give Leo a suitable seat too, even if they aren't of my use, they will at least not be my enemy. A neutral party is greatly accepted over an enemy.

Today is the day with my first face-to-face meeting with a member of Silent Rouges, they have become the biggest variable for me in this plan, and I hope not to rely upon them this much in the future.

"Milord, the merchant you requested has arrived at the castle gate," said a servant of mine bowing his head

"Get him seated, I will arrive soon" Let's see if they truly are the monsters that I predicted. Although I am of [Level 10] now, to kill Igor completely, we need someone of my level or higher. If they have a [Level 10] with them, ill be comfortable with this mission.

I readied myself while thinking this and went for my meeting that was inside one of the castle's guest rooms.

— -

I entered the guest room to meet the 'merchant', the letter specified that the merchant's bodyguard will be the actual agent for this mission. I looked at a pretty generic-looking merchant, donned with expensive clothes, but not as expensive as nobles. A slender face of youth gave out a feeling of a green-horn in this trade.

Looking behind him, stood behind the couch was my agent, my eyes lit up after seeing him. I remained stoic on the outside though, I have practiced well enough for these types of situations. But, on the inside, I was really happy, I can't sense this man's magic, which means he is equal to me, or higher than me in strength.

This man, who looked about forty years old, had an onset of mature wrinkles showing on his face, I know that this man was an old monster, for a [Level 10] living 450-500 years was a normal thing. His ashen color shoulder length hair and big mature body were added to his charm. He had an indescribable chilly and mysterious aura around him.

'Ice user probably' I sat down on the opposite couch as they, as we started the conversation.